The Google Pixel 3 Is A Very Good Phone. But Maybe Phones Have Gone Too Far.

Mat Honan’s review of the Google Pixel 3 smartphone is a funny, harrowing, real-talk look at the devices that have come to govern our lives. “We are captives to our phones, they are having a deleterious effect on society, and no one is coming to help us,” he writes. “On the upside, this is a great phone.”

The Buzzfeed review is a world-weary acknowledgement of the downside of our personal technologies—its effect on our relationships, on our privacy, on our peace of mind. He does point out the new “digital wellbeing” features in Android, but offers other alternatives:

Another idea: You may instead choose to buy a device
with a lousy screen and a lousy camera and a terrible
processor. Maybe you would use this less. Or maybe
you should walk to the ocean and throw your phone in
and turn around and never look back**.

**Please do not do this. It would be very bad for the ocean.

Related recommendation for designers and product makers: check out Liza Kindred’s Mindful Technology for strategies and techniques for making products that focus attention instead of distract it.